Laffin to return to court in March

Steven Laffin, shown in January 2012, was told Thursday that he would be sentenced March 7 for a woman’s 2010 kidnapping and attack. (ERIC WYNNE / Staff)

UPDATED 9:15 p.m. Thursday

Accused murderer Steven Elliott Laffin, who already has pleaded guilty to a 2010 attack and kidnapping of a sex-trade worker, will return to court next month.

The lawyers are still in talks related to charges involving the 2010 killing of Nadine Taylor and Laffin’s sentencing in the attack of a sex-trade worker, Justice Heather Robertson of Nova Scotia Supreme Court heard Thursday.

Laffin, 38, of Dartmouth was set to go to trial in April for second-degree murder in the death of Taylor, who went missing in July 2010.

The body of the 29-year-old Halifax prostitute has never been found.

But Laffin gave up his trial dates two weeks ago and the court was then told he intended to plead guilty to the murder, The Chronicle Herald reported at the time.

There were repeated discussions between the Crown attorneys and the defence lawyers at the courthouse Thursday while Steven Laffin sat on the prisoners bench in the courtroom.

But Laffin didn’t enter a plea and both cases were moved to March 7.

“There’s discussions going on between myself and the Crown and I don’t want to talk about the discussions,” Kevin Burke, one of Laffin’s defence lawyers, said outside court Thursday.

Crown attorney Rick Woodburn told reporters that the Crown and defence have been in discussions in relation to both the homicide and the aggravated assault “with regards to sentencing and parole eligibility.”

A murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence, so the Crown can only review parole eligibility, Woodburn said. But Laffin’s sentence for the other crimes against the surviving victim would also be “taken into account when you’re dealing with parole,” he said.

Because Laffin has not entered a plea in the murder case, “a trial can always be in the works,” Woodburn said. “He hasn’t given up his right to a trial yet.”

Cecil Taylor, father of Nadine Taylor, watched Thursday’s proceedings a few benches away from the victim of the assault, whose identity is banned from publication.

“I just want it put away for Nadine’s friends,” he told reporters outside court, referring to the case.

Taylor disappeared the night of July 28, 2010, after leaving her Fairview apartment.

Laffin became a suspect in her disappearance after he was charged with crimes against the surviving victim.

Last fall, he pleaded guilty to kidnapping, aggravated assault, uttering threats and forcible confinement in the August 2010 attack on that woman.

The victim in that case ran to a nearby home to call 911 after she escaped from a moving car on Old Sambro Road in Halifax. She told investigators she had been attacked by a man who had driven her to a parking lot.